Imperial Eclipse Stout - High West Bourbon | FiftyFifty Brewing Co.

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Bottle @ Ale Arsenal on 1/9/15. Pours black in color with one finger or less of head that dissipates quickly. Plenty of lacing. The aroma is bourbon, caramel, chocolate, and oak. Thinner mouth feel than many in the class, but similar to other Eclipse varietals. The taste is bourbon barrel and roasted malt upfront with some chocolate and caramel. Still a solid beer, but not nearly the best Eclipse varietal.

22oz 'tangerine' wax capped bottle, from run number 1 of the year 2013, Anno Domani. Once again, these barrel-aged Eclipse deals are not at all easy to open with a standard tool - is this supposed to be some sort of security feature or something? Anyways, the barrel in question here comes from the High West Bourbon lineage.

This beer pours a solid, light-nullifying black, with the slightest echo of basal red cola 'highlights', and two slender fingers of thickly foamy, and loosely bubbly milk chocolate brown head, which leaves some bleeding Swiss cheese lace around the glass as things slowly subside.

It smells of roasted doughy caramel malt, bittersweet cocoa, black licorice, boozy vanilla, Bourbon-soaked gritty wood planks, a hint of Irish coffee, and weak earthy, musty hops. The taste is big on the hot vanilla notes up front, followed closely by more toasted caramel malt, charred medium chocolate, dry anise, cherry menthol cough drops, a milder grainy Bourbon besotted woodiness, and a very soft bitter earthy hoppiness. That near 12 points of ABV are noticeable, sure, but hardly a kingmaker at this junction.

The carbonation is damned-near non-existent, the body a slickly solid medium-heavy weight, smooth like glossy licorice twists, with a hint of aerosol creaminess. It finishes fairly sweet, the alcohol not to be denied in all respects, especially when combined with the lingering roasted malt and cocoa, not to mention the earthy licorice/root beer notes, and generally fading soft Kentucky barrel notes.

I've kind of always wanted to try the High Test (uh, I mean West) Bourbon that's been available around here for a while, but, yeah, its dear shelf price kind of distanced me from it. So now, ironies abounding, I get to try its mere ghost via a likewise pricey barrel-aged American stout. My takeaway here is that the whisky is well worth pursuing, given that it renders subtly desirable effects on an already heady base Imperial Stout, and nothing more. Oh, well, there would be that deal with the even further elevated alcohol, but that's a cross to bear for another day.